CPI(M) slams fiat on roadside meet

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The CPI(M) State secretariat has termed the Kerala High Court order banning roadside public meetings an assault on Constitutionally guaranteed freedom of expression.

In a statement here on Thursday, the CPI(M) secretariat said that the Division Benchs order tended to infringe on the jurisdiction of the Legislature and the Executive and called upon the State government to take legal measures to get the order nullified. �Several of the orders issued by the High Court against agitations, strikes and campus politics were assaults on democratic rights. The ban on [roadside] public meetings is a dark verdict in the same direction, it said.

The CPI(M) leadership contended that roadside public meetings were being held without hampering traffic movement and that the authorities were taking alternative measures every time there was a large public meeting. The authorities normally gave permission for public meetings only subject to certain conditions. The High Court had issued the order banning roadside public meetings without taking all this into consideration and in gross violation of democratic norms and civil rights, the CPI(M) secretariat alleged.